Nurgle Warriors

Nurgle Warriors Overview:

Nurgle Warriors are expensive players who have low agility and movement. Despite that they are very good at what they do with high strength and armour. They also come with some great starting skills that you are unlikely to even see on other developed teams. Foul Appearance and Disturbing Presence allow them to disrupt the opposing teams game plan, either if that is a more blocking orientated one, or a passing plan. They also come with Regeneration which can make them live a long time and Nurgle’s Rot which can occasionally get your free Rotters for your team.

The play style of a Nurgle Warrior is rather limited by their lack of agility and movement leaving them to either doing a marking role or a hitting one, or some combination of the two. Another of their downsides though is that they are slow to develop relying mostly on casualties and MVPs, starting without Block doesn’t help things either. Their Foul Appearance is useful both for keeping them alive longer and also helps with marking players as they are harder to block away. If they are marking potential receivers against a passing play as well then their Disturbing Presence will come into play to make that harder. The fact that it also works when they are prone means they can keep up that disturbance even if they do get knocked down.

Road Block Nurgle Warrior:

I think the first skill you will usually take on any normal roll for a Nurgle Warrior is likely to be Block. It will keep them on their feet more and let you be more aggressive with them as they will cause less turnovers. After that taking Stand Firm will make them even harder to block away from whoever they are marking, coupled with Foul Appearance you can deter opponents from even blocking you at all and perhaps changing plans. I’d get Guard next to help out your team mates in a ruck and to counter it on opposing players. If you don’t get some Guard on the team you could struggle against the other bashing sides. After that I’d get Tackle if facing a lot of Dodge, otherwise Mighty Blow can help you get the numerical advantage. Grab could also be useful to keep as many players tied up as possible, you can also set up chain pushes and feed players to your other markers, especially the Beast of Nurgle. There are some nice side uses as well like setting up crowd pushes, making space to run through and moving opponents away from the ball to give them a harder route back to the action.

For doubles you have some choices, Dodge is great for making them even harder to knock over, though I wouldn’t take it if facing much Tackle, Nurgle teams overall don’t usually get much Dodge. Side Step could be a great skill to take, though not if you already have Stand Firm. If you want to think outside the box a bit then Diving Tackle could cause opposing teams a lot of problems. I would look perhaps then to use them more to marking receivers or other players who like to dodge away rather than fight back.

A strength increase is great and if you get that then Tentacles becomes a good follow up skill. If you did that then again marking weaker receiver types would be a more effective use. An agility increase isn’t much use to them compared to another skill, especially as they are slow. Movement increase could come in handy but as they are slow to develop I’d rather take a skill early on, for the first skill it really won’t help much in the way for their development or use on the pitch.

Marking Nurgle Warrior:

This is quite a similar build to the first one though lets them be a bit more mobile to get to the target they wish to mark, it is probably more useful if facing agility teams a lot rather than slower bashing teams. Start with Block and Stand Firm again, you still want the latter as even the weaker teams will try and push you away from your target. Even if they manage that to remove your tackle zone modifier, thankfully your Disturbing Presence will still affect a catch roll. Take Break Tackle next so you can use them to position better and get next to targets, even if you are out of range of them, sometimes moving your Disturbing Presence area of effect can make a difference. If you could make it with go for its to mark a receiver then it may even be worth risking it as the Disturbing Presence will still work if you fall over. You need to still consider how useful the player would be still standing up as that could make the difference for dodge rolls as well. There is an argument for taking Break Tackle before Stand Firm as well, though with their low movement and the fact Stand Firm is useful in more situations I prefer it this way around.

Following from that I would get Guard as you need it to compete in the bashing game and it will also help you on offence which is a weak area for Nurgle teams. Other options are Mighty Blow and Tackle if facing lots of Dodge frequently. Grab also offers the same uses as before. Prehensile Tail should also be considered if you face a lot of dodging opponents. It depends if you want to go all out down the marking route rather than taking some damage options to be a bit more rounded. For doubles I would take Diving Tackle as Break Tackle should hopefully let you position next to the opponents you need to tie up the most. The stat increases all follow the same logic as before, though if you get Tentacles after a strength increase then Diving Tackle might not be as effective as some alternative options.

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11 Responses to Nurgle Warriors

Not a fan of Tentacles on the Warriors at any point Coach? As a third or four skill it’s has some milage I think. I know on a ST 4 player it isn’t as powerful as on the Beast, but it is forcing the other player to roll more dice.
I agree Block, Stand Firm, and Guard are the core skills for these guys, with grab and tentacles being the best secondary skills. The only problem being ever getting to 51 SPP! They can go the killer route too, but I believe that is best left to the Pestigors. That said Mighty Blow as a second skill might be good as an accelerant.

Perhaps you should read the article instead of just looking at the Skill lists! I’ve mentioned Tentacles quite a few times, though I’d only likely take it if one got a strength increase. It is “OK” on strength four, though they skill up slowly and there are quite a few skills that are good alternatives. Perhaps as a late selection I may take Tentacles on strength four players, I think Prehensile Tail is more useful against a wider selection of players though. (Though I’ve not looked at or compared numbers between the two.)

I did read the article, and my point was specifically about taking it without the Strength boost coming first.
Actually against both Prehensile tail and Tackle a gutter runner still has a 67% chance of getting away. Against a ST 4 tentacle player it has only a 42% chance of escaping the tentacles with a 97% of getting the dodge afterward.

Sorry the way you worded it came across as though you hadn’t seen that I said you should take it with a strength increase. Looking into the numbers further there can be some merit to taking it on a standard strength Warrior though.

Your numbers certainly look ok, though you aren’t always just marking Gutter Runners. ST3 players will escape 58% of the time and if they are an Elf likely dodge away. AG3 players are less likely to have dodge, so against a Prehensile Tail they fail 50% of the time and escape Tentacles 58%, though then need to dodge at 67%. Those numbers are close, though if they fail the Tentacles there is no turnover they just lose their action.

Multiple Prehensile Tail stacks up and if they fail the dodge then that causes a turnover, possible injury and can also free your player up for the following turn. So there isn’t really a great deal between the two, which is better will depends on your common opponents and which side effects you would prefer as a result of the skills. I’ll see about doing an in depth article running all the numbers some time in the future.

To be honest I think Nurgle work best once you have numerical advantage and playing long drives. So my 3 developed Warriors (the other is STILL a rookie!) have all gone down the bashy route. By the way – I tried taking mighty Blow first, Claw second to speed up the development. It worked and I advise it if you have bought 3+ re rolls. 2 have these two skills and block third. Another has block and +AG – it helps him dodge to where needed or even handle the ball in cage situations. I think next I’ll give him Guard.

For comparing tentacles to prenhensile tail, I would consider tentacles “low risk – low reward” where as the tail is “high risk-high reward.” Tentacles is much more likely to prevent the dodge giving you better control of the field, but it has zero chance to injure the opposing player or cause a turnover. The tail isn’t all that likely to prevent dodges, but when it does, theres an armor roll and a turnover.

The threat of a turnover is one of the most intimidating prospects in the game, so my vote is for the tail.

Hi coach ! My Nurgle Warrior rolled a double 1 for his first skill up. If most of the time, doubles are seen as a benefit you shouldn’t skip, I am a little bit unsure about this one.
Block seems the perfect first skill for a Nurgle Warrior for obvious reasons but Side Step would make him more mobile during the opponent turn to get closer to a thrower/receiver and use his Disturbing Presence or simply get in contact with the ball carrier in a cage.
What Is your opinion and is there any general guideline about when a normal skill should be taken before a “double” skill ?

Block is an absolutely essential first skill for a Nurgle Warrior. About the only thing I’d ever consider skipping it for is a strength upgrade.

Nurgle is a team of quite specialised players (excepting the Pestigors) and the job of the Warriors is to be a roadblock that hits things. Try doing anything fancier and they will fail. To hit things effectively, you need Block. And since Nurgle Warriors gain SPP very slowly, you will be waiting a very long time for your second skill.

Sidestep is more useful on players with Dodge (who can count on staying upright after a block) and players who can expect to be targeted for blocks. Few teams will target Nurgle Warriors very often because they are so strong.

I started playing Nurgle table-top 13 matches vs 5 different teams ago.

The Nurgle warriors do skill up slowly, random MVP so get lucky.

First one to hit 6 SPP (3 CAS, Ag2 is crap for SPP farming) got Guard, helped his brothers in slime get their 2d6’s worth.

I eventually got another 2 Guard as well, except the 1 in 4 (you can’t really afford all 4 NW from the 1,000,000gp get-go btw) that rolled a double and he got Jump-Up.

For those saying take Dodge instead: M4 imo not paying 3 of those M to get up is a winner, the 3+ Ag non-block I’ll roll anyway because all 4 Nurgle Warriors have S4 and AV9 + Regeneration going for them.
And Jump-Up doesn’t get cancelled by Tackle.

I took Block on the single one that got a second skill up till now , S4 with some Guard around with Block or without isn’t one of those rolls I refrain from so it’s like buying insurance for being a bully by this time.

The starting skills are pretty sweet in the longer run, 1 in 6 has to happen sometime for Foul Appearance. Someone else first describided it better as a reverse nega-trait.
Disturbing Presence stacks, 3 spaces all round, is always in play, add some tackle zones and you shut down big parts of the playboard.

Ah, turn-overs…

And Regeneration is basically a coin flip at going straight from CAS to Reserves bench.
Every time.
Every piece.

My Pestigors do all of the ball things and remove opponent’s pieces.

Rotters get Wrestle, it kinda doesn’t but still helps with Fouls as well, obligatory Kick guy, the single double got Leader. Yep.